Drone provided with a video camera and means for compensating for the artefacts produced at the highest roll angles

• US 9,876,959 B2
• Filed: 01/22/2016
• Issued: 01/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parrot Drones
• Original Assignee: Parrot Drones
• Inventors: Eline, Pierre
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Chia-Wei A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Morehead, III, John H
• Application Number:
  US15/004,733
• Publication Number:
  US 20160219223A1
• Time in Patent Office: 732 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 27/12 Helicopters A63H27/04 takes precedence; Flying tops
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 30/04 using wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 27/08 with two or more rotors
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/028 Micro-sized aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 47/08 Arrangements of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/10 Rotorcrafts
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/13 Flying platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/14 with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/20 Rotors; Rotor supports
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/57 Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6812 based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/684 performed by controlling the image sensor readout, e.g. by controlling the integration time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6842 by controlling the scanning position, e.g. windowing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/687 by shifting the lens or sensor position
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/443 by reading pixels from selected 2D regions of the array, e.g. for windowing or digital zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/46 by combining or binning pixels

Abstract

The drone comprises a camera, an inertial unit measuring the drone angles, and an extractor module delivering data of an image area (ZI) of reduced size defined inside a capture area (ZC) of the sensor. A feedback-control module dynamically modifies the position and the orientation of the image area inside the capture area, in a direction opposite to that of the angle variations measured by the inertial unit. The sensor may operate according to a plurality of different configurations able to be dynamically selected, with a base configuration using a base capture area (ZCB) for low values of roll angle (θ), and at least one degraded mode configuration using an extended capture area (ZCE) of greater size than the base capture area (ZCB), for high values of roll angle (θ).

Claims

1. A motorized flying machine such as a drone (10) provided with a system for stabilizing the captured images comprising:

a camera (14) linked to the drone body, said camera comprising;

a hemispherical-field lens of the fisheye type, and

a digital sensor acquiring the image formed by the lens,

where only one part, located inside a capture area (ZC), of the pixels of the image formed on the digital sensor is captured to deliver raw pixel data;

an inertial unit (50), adapted to measure the Euler angles (φ

, θ

, ψ

) describing the instantaneous attitude of the drone with respect to an absolute terrestrial reference system;

an extractor module (52), receiving as an input said raw pixel data of said capture area (ZC) and delivering as an output pixel data of an image area (ZI) of reduced size inside the capture area and corresponding to an angular sector (36) captured by a conventional camera; and

a feedback-control module (54, 56), receiving as an input angle values delivered by the inertial unit, and adapted to dynamically modify the position and the orientation of the image area inside the capture area, in the direction opposite to that of the changes of the angle values measured by the inertial unit,

characterized in that;

the digital sensor is able to operate according to a plurality of different configurations of operation, able to be dynamically selected during a same sequence of image taking of the camera, said configurations of operation comprising;

a base configuration using a base capture area (ZCB) as a capture area (ZC), and

at least one degraded mode configuration using as a capture area (ZC) an extended capture area (ZCE) of greater size than the base capture area (ZCB), with application to the pixels of the extended capture area of a conversion processing adapted to reduce the size of the extended capture area to that of the base capture area, and

it is further provided a compensator module (58), receiving as an input successive values of roll angle (θ

) of the drone delivered by the inertial unit, and adapted to dynamically modify the current configuration of operation of the digital sensor so that the digital sensor operates;

according to the base configuration for roll angle values (θ

) lower than a first limit, and

according to a degraded mode configuration for roll angle values (θ

) higher than a second limit,

wherein the compensator module is adapted to dynamically modify the current configuration of operation of the digital sensor;

from the base configuration to the degraded mode configuration when the roll angle value increases beyond a first predetermined threshold,

and from the degraded mode configuration to the base configuration when the roll angle of the drone decreases under a second predetermined threshold, the second threshold being different from the first threshold and the second threshold being lower than the first threshold.

2. The drone of claim 1, wherein the configurations of operation comprise:

the base configuration (Configuration #1), using the base capture area (ZCB) as a capture area (ZC),

a moderately degraded mode configuration (Configuration #2) using as a capture area (ZC) a first extended capture area of greater size than the base capture area, with application to the pixels of the first extended capture area of a first conversion processing adapted to reduce the size of the first extended capture area to that of the base capture area, and

a strongly degraded mode configuration (Configuration #3) using as a capture area (ZC) a second extended capture area of greater size than the first extended capture area, with application to the pixels of the second extended capture area of a second conversion processing, different from the first processing, adapted to reduce the size of the second extended capture area to that of the base capture area,

and wherein the compensator module is further adapted to dynamically modifies the current configuration of operation of the digital sensor such that the digital sensor operates;

according to the base configuration for roll angle values lower than the first limit,

according to the moderately degraded mode configuration for roll angle values higher than the second limit and lower than the third limit, and

according to the strongly degraded mode configuration for roll angle values higher than those of the third limit.